UK’s NBS has released its National BIM Survey 2013 results. This third national BIM survey provides intriguing insights into the BIM adoption data in the UK’s AECO market.

39 percent of the study participants said they have adopted BIM, with 35 percent using both 2D and 3D CAD/BIM processes. Interestingly, 36 percent–a rather larger number–in the UK are not using CAD at all but rather drawing by hand. 25 percent said they are using 2D CAD processes.

Of the 39 percent using BIM 47 percent are at Level 2 adoption. In the United Kingdom there is a government goal to get the industry to Level 2 BIM by 2016. Slightly more than half of the study participants were aware of the three levels of BIM. Level 0 is just CAD is equal to electronic 2D drafting. Level 1 BIM involves 3D models and 2D CAD and gets into object-based design. Level 2 (the UK government’s 2016 target) involves collaboration as well as object-based BIM. Level 3 involves integration and interoperability and gets into life-cycle management of buildings.

The study results also show that the cloud is changing the way teams collaborate through data access and strong data sharing. 75 percent of study participants believe that BIM is the future of AECO.

Architosh Analysis

We are very intrigued by the high percentage of users in this study who said they draw by hand. There are more folks drawing by hand in the UK than those using 2D CAD, if one interprets this study to corollate to the UK market in general. The fact that nearly 40 percent are doing BIM at some level and half of these nearly are at Level 2 is promising for BIM in the United Kingdom. Based on data from one of the primary BIM providers in Europe that was shared with us recently, the United Kingdom is far along in BIM but is not the most advanced nation with regards to BIM adoption. It was suggested also that the United States may be ahead of the UK with respect to BIM. One thing is for sure, based on our research and gut feel, we doubt that the large percentage in the UK drawing by hand could be matched in the US.